


like super mario backflipping up a flight of stairs

by rarmaster



Series: don't you worry child [11]
Category: Homestuck, Kingdom Hearts, Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types, Tales of Symphonia, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, also: more lore! finally!, dave fucking despises this, everyoen else is handling it okay, like not great but better than dave, mythra mentions her siblings in passing if you want that also, thank god, the dywc lore has been few and far between
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 09:28:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23848960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rarmaster/pseuds/rarmaster
Summary: Mythra finally explains what they're doing here. Her team doesn't like it, so much.
Series: don't you worry child [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1414204
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	like super mario backflipping up a flight of stairs

**Author's Note:**

> housekeeping: Kratos is from a XC2 AU called YWKON, and Repliku (who goes by Riku for reasons) is from FtPverse. More about both [here](https://rarsneezes.dreamwidth.org/24351.html?style=site). Everyone else is from their "vanilla" canons but as far as i'm concerened, homestuck epilogues and homestuck 2 are fake and cannot hurt me
> 
> also here's a missing scene (like one of? four? five???) before the 10k davefic LMFAO we're getting there

A world made of crystal, the ground a fine sand of glittering rainbow composed from broken crystals, large crystal formations anywhere from half the size of your average human to three times their sizes protruding from the sand, in pale pinks and blues and gentle greens. The sky caught at a perpetual dusk, the sky painted in purples and oranges unnatural for something so starless and free of clouds. Whether or not the crystals themselves glow or simply just refract the light from the slanted sunset is hard to say.

Dave sits atop one of the larger protrusions of crystal, in the small V-shape created by colliding blue and green. Hands behind his head he leans back against the blue, legs kicked up against the green. Riku sits at the foot of the crystal Dave has claimed, running the sand through his fingers like he’s interested by the texture. Kratos sits on one of the smaller crystals, pale pink—it’s large enough for him to comfortably cross his legs and rest his folded hands on the intersection of his ankles.

The energy of the place shifts, and suddenly Mythra stands in the center of the three of them. She looks around, taking count of her three charges, and then stops.

“Where’s—” she starts, and then as if having suddenly been beamed the information, takes a quick step to her left, towards Riku, making room for Shadow to come skidding to a halt along the path. “There you are!” she says, brightly.

Shadow huffs and finds a protrusion of crystal for himself to sit on.

“You need us for something?” Riku asks, looking up at her. He contemplates getting to his feet, then decides against it. He keeps pouring sand between his palms, just to give him something to do with his hands.

“Just checking in,” Mythra answers, which all four of her charges find a little strange. A mutual eyebrow is raised between them, even though no one can really see Dave doing that from up where he is on his perch.

“We’re fine,” Shadow says, short.

“Yeah no thanks to you,” Dave adds, from above. He shifts his weight, swings his legs to dangle off the side of the crystal, arm leaned against the blue side to continue supporting his head. “You mind running the plan me one more time? I’m not sure I got it the first time. Or actually I just didn’t get how us traipsing around through fucking Candyland and bad Sburb knockoffs had anything to do with getting home. Which, as much as I’m enjoying shooting the shit with these guys, I’m pretty sure we’d all like to do? Right?”

“Yeah,” Riku says. “This is nice but… not what I intended to do with my week, you know?” He’s trying to make the most of it, but…

Mythra’s smile immediately drops to annoyance, and she huffs, hands on her hips. “Look, we just need your help with something,” she says.

“You and your siblings?” Kratos asks, just to be clear.

“Does it matter?” Mythra shoots back. “Technically _we’re_ just here to help Rosalina. But, yeah, sure. We’re here to help her, you’re here to help us. Easy.”

“Help you do _what_?” Shadow presses.

“Yeah like I said if you had quests or some shit for us to do that’d make a lot more sense, but all I’m seeing is the universe’s worst sightseeing tour,” Dave adds.

“Well, yeah, because that’s what we need you to do,” Mythra answers, like it’s obvious.

“Okay what,” Dave says, before anyone else can open their mouths. “Like I guess I’m not complaining, actually doing quests sounds tedious as shit, and I’d fucking hate doing them, but. That would make _sense_? There’s no way you just need us to. Walk around. Hop through portals. Man what is even the rhyme or _reason_ behind those portals?? They make no sense.”

“Kratos’ theory about that just being where the energy was gathered enough for the portals to _exist_ made sense…” Riku starts, but reevaluates based on Mythra’s reaction. “Let me guess, that’s not what’s actually going on, huh?”

“That’s… part of it,” Mythra hedges.

“And what’s the rest?” Shadow asks.

Mythra grimaces. “I think it’s gonna be a little complicated for y’all to understand,” she says.

They all stare at her, deadpan.

“Can’t be worse than Sburb.” Dave breaks the silence before the rest of them, though they were all thinking along similar lines regarding their own lives, all of which have been wild and complicated and frankly insane at some point or another. “Hit us.”

Mythra stares at them all for a second, then rolls her eyes and throws her hair back over her shoulder. “Sure, fine. Alvis did some calculating and it turns out that the ether signatures—the energy signatures, whatever—each one of you gives off, when placed within this space in a particular way, will allow us to manipulate the world in such a way that we can lock up a cosmic horror,” Mythra explains.

“That seems more convoluted than complicated,” Kratos argues.

“Oh come on,” Mythra whines, more exasperated than upset. “You’ve got an Aegis for a brother, don’t you?”

“None of the Aegises I know have ever done something like this,” Kratos says.

“Cowards.”

“Excuse me?”

“Sorry, reflex.” Mythra coughs. “Look, I promise this is a thing, and I promise it’s gonna work. We could be asking you to do something _significantly_ more bullshit.”

“…what kind of cosmic horror are we talking about?” Shadow asks, arms folded across his chest. He seems more concerned than upset.

“Look, if we’ve done our job right, you won’t have to see it,” Mythra insists. “Which is a good thing.”

No one seems really convinced or swayed by this explanation, but no one gets a chance to press, because Dave calls down:

“Hang on, sorry, are you saying us running around all over the place is some kind of fucking—Super Mario backflipping up a flight of stairs bullshit?”

Mythra’s eyes light up. “Yeah, actually,” she says. “It’s exactly like that.” After a second, she amends: “Well, okay, it’s more like… Yoshi spitting fireballs out of his mouth until you warp to the credits, but yeah. It’s like that. Who knew you could gum up a universe with the same kind of bullshit inputs you put into a console?” She laughs, proud of herself. The laugh turns sour after a moment. “Well, Alvis did, obviously, it was his idea, but—”

“ _Fuck_ you!” Dave shouts.

Mythra blinks. “What?”

“I don’t want to backflip up any stairs!”

“It’s… a metaphor?”

A metaphor that’s lost on everyone else here, but one none of them have time to really consider anyway, because Dave has hopped off the crystalline pillar he’s been using as a seat and flies down towards Mythra, his mouth pulled in a snarl, hands thrown up in the air.

“I don’t want to be part of some fucking game, I don’t want to be part of some fucking speedrun, not _again,_ and I didn’t even get to choose the game this time! I just got warped in here like some kind of bullshit and I don’t want anything to _do_ with that! I’m sick and tired of _games!_ ”

“This isn’t a game, this is real life,” Mythra counters, clearly annoyed.

Dave shrugs, large and exaggerated. “Sburb managed to be both of them. So. Checkmate.”

At this point, he’s all but in Mythra’s face, floating inches closer even as she takes a step back. Finally she gets fed up and pushes him away by his face, which he splutters about, fixing his shades.

“Fuck you!” he spits again.

Riku gets to his feet.

“Come on, I don’t get what the big deal is!” Mythra argues.

“Big deal? Dude you just yanked us here so we could be cogs in a machine—pawns in some fucking chess game— _tied to some kind of cosmic fucking fate,_ all over again!” Dave spits. No one’s… ever seen him this angry, actually. “Of course we’re fucking pissed!!! This is the last fucking thing I wanted—”

“Why would any of us want to be manipulated?” Shadow adds, his tone similarly sharp.

Mythra glares between the both of them, fidgeting just slightly from foot to foot. “It’s not really manipulation,” she argues.

“But you didn’t give any of us a choice,” Kratos says, weary, just shy of angry himself. “I’m sure all of us would have much preferred a choice.”

“We might have even said yes, if you’d asked,” Riku adds.

“I wouldn’t’ve,” Dave says.

Mythra huffs, arms crossed over her chest. “Look, it wasn’t my idea,” she argues, a little quieter. She won’t look at any of them. “It was Alvis’—”

“Blaming your brother, classic gambit,” Kratos comments.

“Shut up!” Mythra snaps. “Listen—”

“No you listen,” Dave interjects, floating just high enough he can look down on Mythra. “Fuck you, fuck this. Send me home.”

“Uh, did you miss the whole cosmic horror thing? Safety of the multiverse literally hangs in the balance, here—”

“I don’t care. I don’t want to be a hero. I want to be sipping apple juice on the beach or some shit like the vacation _I deserve,_ after Sburb’s nonsense. Get some other Dave.”

“It has to be you.”

“Fuck this.”

“I can’t send you home until we’re done.” Mythra sounds… _legitimately_ apologetic, at least. Riku will give her credit for that. “It doesn’t… We can’t…” She doesn’t have an excuse, but she doesn’t seem to budge.

“Fuck you,” Dave spits, but there’s not a lot of venom in it. He turns on his heel as well as one can while floating, and flies off, away from the rest of them. Riku’s not too worried. He’d want some time to cool off after this, too.

“I promise,” Mythra says, still not looking at anyone. “As soon as this is done, we’ll send you back to the exact moment you left. No harm done.”

Kratos would like to argue that there’s been plenty of harm done, with them just being uprooted like this, against their will, but there’s no point arguing it any further. He lets it go.

“I’ll… check up on y’all later,” Mythra whispers, and then she’s gone.

“Should’ve asked her why _she_ gets to teleport around like that,” Shadow muses, with the exact tone that suggests his humor is only hiding his anger.

“Probably an Aegis thing,” Kratos says, sighing.

“What… is an Aegis, anyway?” Riku asks, looking to Kratos. “I don’t think Mythra really said, last time.”

Kratos hums, scowling as he tries to put words to it. It’s never really something he’s had to put words to, before. And it’s hard to describe to someone who knows nothing about blades, especially since—for all he’s certain Mythra is an Aegis just as his Mithos is—he’s not even sure the blade system _exists,_ here. Finally, though, he decides on:

“Beings with godlike power? I think that’s the simplest I can describe them.”

“She said your brother is one,” Shadow asks.

“Adopted,” Kratos clarifies, though neither Riku nor Shadow look like they needed the clarification. “My sister is, too. But…”

“How many even are there?” Shadow says, sounding annoyed.

“I think this is a parallel universe thing,” Riku interjects, before Kratos can say basically the same. “Like, Mythra and her siblings are the Aegises of _this_ universe, but Kratos’ are the Aegises of _their_ universe—right? It has to be.”

“I think so, yes,” Kratos agrees.

Shadow sighs, then hops off his crystal seat. “I’m going for another run,” he says, leaving Kratos and Riku alone.

Kratos doesn’t look like he wants to do much more talking, so Riku leaves him be.


End file.
